Eminem Admits He’s Made Mistakes With Albums & They’ve Made Him Better (Video)

Eminem appeared in a multi-part interview with Sway Calloway. Tonight (September 11), that conversation’s first part released to the public. It marks the first time that the Rap superstar has spoken about his Kamikaze album, which recently debuted at #1 on the charts.

After handing his interviewer an early Sway & King Tech Rap album to autograph, Eminem addressed the circumstances that led to his sneak-attack album less than two weeks ago. Em admitted that upon late last year’s Revival campaign, fans began dismissing the LP when the tracklist released. That LP involved P!nk, Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys, Skylar Grey, Kehlani, Phresher, and Beyoncé. Meanwhile, Dr. Dre did not produce a track. With Kamikaze, Marshall Mathers says he wanted opinions to form with the music, not the online hype.

In the 13-minute chat, Eminem says that he comes from an era where originality prevailed. If an MC was not original, he was trash. Em feels that in the wake of his 2017 album, people wanted him to be like everybody else. He says that by being an individual apart from the Rap pack, his art was perceived as “trash.”

However, to Revival detractors, Eminem asserts that the album prompted what some fans—including Sway—are describing as a creative reawakening, especially in the Slim Shady canon. “Look I have definitely made albums that wouldn’t be at the top of my list: Encore, Relapse, he begins, referring to his 2004 and 2009 releases. “I believe Encore is a better album than Relapse. Relapse is something that I looked at in a couple of years—went back and cringed at. I was like, ‘Aw, Jesus Christ.’ I didn’t even realize that I was doing that many accents!” Em tells Sway how rapping in dialects allowed him to connect difficult rhymes. “If it wasn’t for Relapse I wouldn’t have been able to make Recovery. If it wasn’t for Revival, I wouldn’t have been able to make [Kamikaze]. I’m good with it. It’s just that some people, more than others, went a lil’ far with it.” Eminem never says Joe Budden’s name, who may be the most notable critic of the batch of songs. On his album, Em addresses his former Shady Records employee.

Eminem describes the Internet culture that clouded the release of Revival. Eminem believes that people were too stubborn to admit a change of opinion after the hot-takes during roll-out, even if they liked the music. Em also tells Sway that in the online era, rappers, DJs, personalities, and journalists came up a different way than he and his host did in the ’80s and ’90s. Later in the first part of the interview, Eminem says that while people were impressed by 2018’s “Chloraseptic Remix” with 2 Chainz, he believes that if it were on Revival, people would not have noticed because they did not bother to listen in full. “No matter what, when I zig, I should have zagged.”

The MC with the #1 album admits that there is an upside to all the criticism. “I’m not gonna lie. There is something inside of me that’s a little more happy when I’m angry…it inspires me to say something back.” That is a major theme and touchstone of Kamikaze.

Regarding who Eminem speaks to on his new LP, at 10:20, Sway begins to bring up the current Joe Budden and MGK issues. After a teaser reel from upcoming parts, fans will have to wait to see how Eminem feels beyond (and since) his rhymes.